Cannes Film Festival kicks off with ‘The Great Gatsby’
Posted May 15, 2013 7:56 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Cannes Film Festival kicks off Wednesday with the premiere of The Great Gatsby, a glitzy twirl through the jazz age by director Baz Luhrmann.
The 3-D adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Carey Mulligan will open the 66th annual film festival in the glamorous resort nestled on the French Riviera.
Director Steven Spielberg serves as president at this year’s Cannes jury, which includes other notable industry giants, Oscar-winning actor Nicole Kidman and Oscar-winning director Ang Lee.
Twenty films, including those from Paolo Sorrentino, Asghar Farhadi and Steven Soderbergh, have been selected to compete for the festival’s highest honour, the prestigious Palme d’Or.
Films that have already generated buzz include Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, about Liberace and his much younger lover Scott Thorson.
Variety’s film critic Jay Weissberg said Soderbergh had a hard time getting funding from the film studios to make the film.
“So he had to go to HBO to have it done and I think that that is something that should be talked about on the Croisette, and I imagine it will be because Soderbergh is such a name and it’s got stars like Matt Damon and Michael Douglas.”
Other expected highlights of the festival include Sorrentino’s La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), Le Passe (The Past) by Farhadi and Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives.
Click here for more about the festival films.
